Kyotoph Oneshots
by LavenderGazelle
Summary: A series of oneshots between Avatar Kyoshi and Toph, otherwise known as Kyotoph (or Kyoph). Chaos doesn't even begin to describe it. Crackfic? Perhaps.
1. Under The Table

Whoever invented formal meetings needed to be strung up by the balls and shot in the arse twelve times. That was the shared opinion of both Toph and Kyoshi as they both sat in the War Room of the Fire Nation Palace, listening to the man with the most boring voice possible drone on and on and on.

Kuruk, Roku, Suki and Aang were doing a much better job just not cringing whenever he started up a new sentence. In fact, as impossible as it seemed, there was the distinct impression that they were actually _listening._ But that was ridiculous. Maybe they were just sitting there trying to figure out why their ears were going into shock.

Toph projected her mind towards Kyoshi and activated their link. They were connected by the Avatar Cycle, both representing the element of earth, so they, like the rest of the Avatars, could do that. It was pretty cool sometimes.

"_Bigfoot, I don't think I can last much longer. You're powerful. You're an Avatar. Can't you do something?" _she begged. _"Get us out of this pit!"_

"_He's too strong," _Kyoshi responded sarcastically. _"I would but my mind has already started shutting down."_

Toph barely suppressed a snort. _"You have a mind?"_ She sensed Kyoshi stare at her when the hair on the back of her neck prickled.

"_It's either that or you're mental," _Kyoshi snapped. She reclined in her chair and folded a corner of the report she had been given. _"Get out of it yourself. What do I look like to you? A slave?"_

Oh now that was just asking for it. _"You look like a human tree, Bigfoot. Your arms are like branches and your feet can squash a mountain like a pile of shit. Speaking of heights, how's the weather up there?"_

The meeting abruptly halted when Toph was suddenly launched through the floor above, still sitting on the chair. _"I don't know. Why don't you tell me yourself?"_

It took a few minutes to find her and bring her back. Kyoshi sat, pretending to be oblivious to the suspicious looks cast her way as her student was pushed back into her spot, sulking as her attempt to hide failed. Her ruffled fringe covered her face and her nose poked out from between her bangs. Huffing, she blew them out of her face and continued to pout.

"_Well done, Princess Shortshit. You would have succeeded had you not shouted, 'no, don't come near me you bunch of old creepers' just as they turned to leave. If that's your best, I wouldn't want to play Hide and Seek with you. You'd just give yourself away before the game even started."_

Toph gave her the best _well I'd like to see you try _look possible, which was a feat considering, y'know, she was blind. _"Think you could kick my arse a little harder next time? I think I quite enjoyed bouncing through the fucking ceiling."_

The meeting abruptly halted again. This time Kyoshi kept count. It took just under five minutes for them to find Toph, two for the rest of the gathered officials to stop staring at her accusingly, and about thirty seconds for her to get bored of swirling debris around her water glass while pointedly ignoring them and attempting to maintain an innocent façade.

"_This time I hid under the bed. Last time it was the curtain."_

"_There's a bed up there?"_

"_For some reason. Man, this guy's voice should be banned on the grounds of torture!"_

"_You two should try listening," _said a third voice calmly. Both inclined their heads challengingly to Roku, who glanced at them subtly through the corner of his eyes. _"It's getting increasingly difficult to concentrate with all these distractions."_

"_Difficult to concentrate?" _Toph scoffed. _More like impossible._

"_That's because you're a boring bastard just like he is." _Kyoshi muttered instead. Rather than be offended by the blatant search for a fight, Roku turned his attention back to the briefing. _"Yeah, that's right. Back down, you old codger."_

"_Ky-ohhhhh-shiiiii."_

"_Shut your face, Kuruk." _One look at the Waterbender and she was already sneering at him as he drooled in an apparent daze. Aang was trying to poke him with his staff to get him to wake up, but to no avail.

"_Come on, that's not nice. Why are you always so mean to me?"_

"Fuck off you-" Kyoshi proceeded to call him something incredibly rude. Out loud. And everything suddenly went quiet (if they disregarded the sound of Suki choking on her water as noise).

"E- excuse me...?" choked the speaker.

"You're excused," she said dryly. "In fact, we all are. Can I go home now?" Seven minutes later they were ready to speak again after trying to remind the Earthbender of proper behaviour and language. The first syllable rolled out of the speaker's mouth and Toph crashed spectacularly through the ceiling a third time.

Finally Zuko exploded. "What _are _you doing?"

"Trying to figure out why she keeps flying off."

"She's flying off because you keep playing footsie with her under the table," Kuruk complained, watching as three tired men went yet again to retrieve the blind (and quite dangerous) child. "Can't you play a little less rough?"

"Alright, fine. I was trying to find better methods of birth control."

"Birth control?" Zuko and Aang blinked in confusion and turned to Iroh, who was suddenly scratching his head in embarrassment.

Roku shook his head as tell-tale bangs and crashes began anew a floor up. "Perhaps it would be better if those two were excused from the meeting?"

"They need to be here, Roku. It's important they hear this."

"Well it's taking too long."

Zuko rounded on her as she huffed. "You're dragging it out!" he growled.

"That's disgusting." Kyoshi hissed.

"Just-" Roku stood from his seat and sighed. "Let's just calm down-"

"-fuck that-"

"-Kyoshi!" he said sharply. Pausing, he went on, "let's just calm down and get on with this. The sooner we do that, the sooner we can all go home."

"Are you saying I can't go home now?" Kyoshi growled.

Roku's expression turned to one of slight panic. "No," he said quickly. "But you should be here to hear this, considering it relates to the damage that was done last week."

Kyoshi remembered that. It had been around lunchtime when Toph had been escorted in by guards, all out of breath, who had attempted to rip a sign out of the ground at one of the major intersections in one of the local markets. They had given their report and left to nurse their damaged pride while they were left to deal with the Earthbender.

"Kyoshi, she's your apprentice!" Zuko had turned to her when all other efforts to discipline her failed miserably. She had just been idly trying to draw pictures out of nuts on a plate, using her finger to nudge them into position. That hadn't turned out well and the pictures had come out horribly, so she had scattered them across the floor in a tantrum. "She'll listen to you. Deal with her."

Brushing off her hands on her robes, she had glared at her apprentice. "Tomorrow morning, you're going to show me where that sign is. Is that understood?"

Toph had nodded silently and said nothing for the rest of the night.

"Yeah, I remember the damage." Kyoshi folded her arms over her chest. "I don't see the problem."

"The problem-" Zuko spluttered indignantly. "Do you happen to remember what happened _after_ that?"

Oh yeah. _That_.

Kyoshi, as well as Zuko, Kuruk, Roku and Iroh, had headed into the marketplace to survey the damage. Toph had shown them where the sign was. It had been a fairly dignified thing, made of wood. The paint on it had been scratched into intelligible black marks, it had been snapped and splintered slightly, but it still stood.

"What is this?" Kyoshi had snarled in outrage, pointing at the wooden eye-sore. "Look at what you've done!"

"I … can't...?" Toph replied with a degree of nervousness.

"I can't believe you'd do this. You should know better!" Toph had lowered her head in shame as Kyoshi chastised her. The others had stood to one side; Zuko smiling smugly that finally someone could control the child, and watched.

"Vandalism?" she raved, stomping forward angrily. Toph backed away a step. Her hands raised defensively, as if she were expecting to be hit. "I taught you better than this. If you're going to break shit, at least do it _properly!_"

Looks of relief turned to confusion, then disbelief and horror. Grabbing the middle of the wooden beam, she started ripping it out of the ground violently. Toph had cheered, Zuko had cried out in alarm, and Kuruk had shouted, _"STOP! KYOSHI, NO!" _And then got slapped with it for treating her like a dog. The bruise had since healed. Tensions, however, had not. But like she gave a damn.

Blinking back to awareness, Kyoshi looked over at him. "...I don't see the problem."

Grinding his teeth in rage, Zuko was going to be in a lot of pain later. "You don't see the-?"

Toph escorted herself back in at that point. She was looking rather bored and dragging with her three very exhausted servants, who were too tired to apologise. She left them in a tangled heap on the floor and reclaimed her seat, throwing a piece of fruit to her teacher, who kicked her feet up onto the desk. "What did I miss?"

"Group sex," Kyoshi said, swallowing a small bite of fruit. "Don't worry though, it was shit. All Emperor Smart-arse did was complain."

"Emperor...?"

"_Where'd you hide that time?"_

"_Oh, I didn't. I just stood in the corridor until they found me and charged them."_

Kyoshi looked over her shoulder at the servants. She'd given them a run around alright. From the looks of it they weren't going to get up for a while. _"Well it worked. They look pretty much dead now. What's the score?"_

"_Uhhh … seven, I think. There were those four guards last week."_

Taking another bite, Kyoshi wrinkled her nose, spat out the food onto the floor and threw the fruit at the window. It missed and rolled onto the floor. Zuko muttered something about never letting an Earthbender into his palace again as the Speaker, who was not welcome at all to continue, decided to resume his attempted brain-murder.

"_What about the two cooks before that?"_

"_...nine," _Toph corrected herself. _"How about you?"_

"_Eight. But then again I did help you with those three so that makes it eleven."_

"_Eight? But you only did five guards and one servant. That's six."_

"_Correction. I tired out Emperor Smart-arse. He's Fire Lord, he counts as two."_

Toph blinked in surprise. _"What? Why didn't you tell me?"_

"_You never asked."_

This time it was Kyoshi who was launched through the ceiling. She got as far as the end of the corridor before someone bowled into her and Earthbent her back into the War Room.

"_Didn't get far, then?" _Toph sucked on her lips in disappointment. _"Damn."_

"_Shame, isn't it? Maybe if I got sucked through the floor next time." _She glared at Roku, who had been the one to catch her. Even though he was one to support her listening in the meeting, he looked utterly bored out of his mind. He didn't take notice, his thoughts taking him elsewhere.

Kyoshi's mind began to roam as well. It travelled into places that made the other Avatars squirm in their seats and glance at her uncomfortably. The two Earthbenders smiled to themselves, feeling the ripple of unease though their link, and made their thoughts as loud, and as dirty, as possible.

The response was instantaneous. Kuruk's nose erupted with such force that the bloody geyser propelled him backwards and out of his seat. It took several minutes to revive him from his sudden daze, and as he waved away the startled and panicking servants, a thin trickle of blood ran down Roku's upper lip. Despite his determination to ignore everything, he hadn't been able to manage it. Aang just sat there, absolutely mortified, as one by one the thoughts ran around his mind.

By the time the meeting ended, Kyoshi and Toph were grinning and thoroughly entertained. They left with the biggest devious, shit-eating smirks on their faces imaginable. Zuko, the speaker, Suki and Iroh blinked in confusion as, even as they headed towards the doors with sighs of relief, the Avatars remained rigidly sitting and staring at each other apprehensively.

None of them was going to make the first move to leave. The raucous laughter echoing down the halls only made their flustered blushes deepen.


	2. Oneshots 1

"Now that you're all alive again, what's the first thing you're going to do?" asked Suki as they ate at the dinner table. Well, Kyoshi wasn't eating, and Toph was picking at her food. Aang, Kuruk and Sokka, however, were practically shovelling the plates into their mouths while Roku watched on wondering how they were managing to do it without choking.

"Surfing!" declared Kuruk, throwing his fist in the air with excitement.

"Sleep," yawned Roku.

There was a pause. Whoever was next in line was too distracted to have heard her inquiry. Eyes glanced up to Kyoshi, who was staring off into the distance with an unfocused look in her eye.

Kuruk gave her a shove and said, "well?"

Kyoshi glanced about the table, blinking slowly. Her eyes lingered on Toph, who was passively listening to the conversation with undisguised curiosity. She picked up her drink and shrugged, taking a sip of the tea.

Kuruk repeated, "What's the first thing you're going to do now we're alive? I'm going surfing and Roku's gonna sleep for a month. What about you?"

Without hesitation, Kyoshi replied, "sex, obviously."

The calm, collected atmosphere came crashing down.

Soaked from a spectacular spit-take provided by courtesy of Suki and Roku, Kuruk had to raise his voice through the entertained laugh roaring from Toph. "Kyoshi, seriously? At the _dinner table_?"

"No, not at the fucking dinner table," Kyoshi glared. "What do you think I am?"

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Toph leaned back her head as Kyoshi threw another nut at her face, and tried to catch it in her mouth. There was a click as it landed too far to the right and bounced off her cheek, falling onto her lap. "Missed." Another nut soared towards her. This one flicked off her forehead. "Missed."

Kyoshi leaned off to one side with a bowl on her lap and her head resting on her closed fist. "No shit."

The next one flew into her eye.

"Hey!" Zuko shouted, noticing the mountain of food gathering around the bored Earthbenders. "Stop wasting perfectly good nuts!"

"You can talk," Kyoshi muttered. "Not like you've been using yours."

Zuko turned an impossible shade of red, and smoke billowed from his nostrils as Toph laughed mockingly.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Agony seared through her body as the white-hot flame nipped at her sensitive feet, and the explosion showered her in debris As she hit the ground, the escaping warriors heard the cry that tore from her mouth. The pain was so intense it felt like she was walking on magma, and for a moment her mind went completely blank. When she came to seconds later, it was to a snarl of outrage above her. To explosions and bone-crushing assaults being launched upon the enemy. Toph lifted her head groggily as if she had just woken up from a nap. All she could manage was a slight whimper when she was lifted into a bridal carry, and a sigh when her protector's warmth enveloped her like a blanket.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Kyoshi stood over Toph's bedside with a mask of fury set upon her face. For the past five minutes she had got a bollocking about how stupid she had acted, 'running off on her own', while the rest of the Kyoshi warriors cowered in the corner wondering how on earth she could sit there so calmly. Truth was, Toph and Kyoshi both knew that wasn't the real issue. Toph had straggled as they had run for the exit because she had been fending off multiple attacks with her Airbending.

"Keep the _fuck _up next time!" spat the angered samurai finally as she stormed out of the room. Toph just nodded numbly.

She had got hurt. Kyoshi had heard her scream. And for one fleeting moment, the she had been afraid.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

A simple enough question, and one that made her movements slow as she gazed over her shoulder at her apprentice. Kyoshi's arms were folded in front of her chest, her fingers hooking the hem of her tunic as she prepared to pull it over her head. Toph sat on the edge of the desk, swinging her feet back and forth whilst she waited for an answer.

Did Kyoshi have any scars?

"Too many to count," she said, finally removing her shirt and tossing it aside onto the bed. Toph's sudden question had taken her by surprise, but she expected nothing less. "Why?"

"I was just wondering," Toph said, and then lapsed into silence for a few seconds. "Can … can I see one?"

"You might have forgotten this, so I'll remind you just this once. You're blind."

Toph huffed. "No, I mean can you … I mean..." Her jaw clenched and she turned away. "Never mind."

Kyoshi observed her for a moment, and then stepped forward, grabbing one of her hands. Kneeling down, she selected one of the thin lines criss-crossing her body and then traced one of them slowly. It was one that stretched from her shoulder across to her breast.

Toph's eyes widened in amazement. "H... how did you get that one?"

"I fell," replied the samurai lazily. "This one I got in the Water Tribes. First _and last_ time I ever went." She showed her apprentice another.

"Cool. So, what's the best one you've got?"

"This one." Kyoshi traced one which started at the right side of her neck, ran down her chest and curved around to the back of her hip.

Toph's eyes widened even further, this time in shock. "And who gave you that?"

"That was my Earthbending teacher," Kyoshi replied. "The only person who I never managed to beat."

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

When her parents visited the palace, Kyoshi wasn't surprised when Toph suddenly dropped from the face of the planet. Lao and Poppy Bei Fong said that they were arriving to congratulate the new Fire Lord, but Kuruk, who had greeted them through a plastic—but deceptively convincing—smile, had immediately discerned their true motives.

Rumour had it that the Avatar's Earthbending Teacher, The Blind Bandit, was staying at the palace for a week for a supply rest before they both went travelling somewhere. They were there to try and find her. Judging by Toph's reaction to that, she wasn't too keen.

When she found her apprentice running down a corridor trying to find a hiding spot, Kyoshi frowned. Voices of Zuko, Poppy and Lao were coming from one end of the corridor, and some of the palace guards, who had been searching for her for several hours, from the other. Suki and the rest of the Kyoshi Warrior patrol that had come from the island stopped behind their leader. Toph skidded to a halt and looked behind her, then around Kyoshi, apprehensively.

There was no way for Toph to find a hiding place before one of the two groups saw her.

Five seconds later, they rounded the corner.

"Avatar Kyoshi, why are you standing around in the corridor?" asked Zuko.

Kyoshi stared at him. "We're just admiring the drapes," she snapped sarcastically. "Do we really need a reason to stand around?"

"Well, no."

"Then I'm not explaining myself to you. Piss off."

Zuko gave her a disapproving look. Lao and Poppy looked startled and offended, but Zuko marched them on before they could say anything. "Have you found Miss Bei Fong yet?" they heard him ask his guards as he disappeared.

Kyoshi jerked her leg. Toph crawled out from underneath her robes and let out a sigh of relief as she brushed off her sleeves. The Kyoshi Warriors, at this point, looked bewildered, shocked, and quite frankly (but secretly) put out. "Bigfoot, do you always ambush people and drag them into your pants?"

"Only the people that irritate me. Consider yourself unlucky. Now shut up and run."

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Erupting in a murderous, unrestrained rage, the elements of Earth, Air and Fire swirled around in a deadly sphere around the Avatar. Before Toph could even think to move, Suki was shouting, telling everyone to get away. Kyoshi had entered the Avatar State, and it was forcing Kuruk, Aang and Roku into it as well.

Forcing her wounded body off of the ground, Toph staggered towards Kyoshi just as she started to rise from the earth. Leaping up, she grabbed Kyoshi's tunic; the hair on the back of her neck burned as eyes consumed by cosmic energy latched onto her.

Toph felt the muscles in her neck stretch as her head turned towards the enemy. Forcing herself higher, the blind Earthbender dug her toes into Kyoshi's obi for leverage, wrapped her arms around her neck and buried her face into her teacher's neck.

For a moment it stopped. Kyoshi stopped moving, stopping rising through the air. It was dawning on her what was going on. Awareness was starting to return to her through the maelstrom.

"_Don't do this to yourself."_ Those were the words they both heard, the words that Toph whispered.

The white dominating Kyoshi's dark emerald eyes faded out as her eyes drifted shut. Crossing them over Toph's back, she pulled her closer and let the vengeful elements go. It was like weaving a ribbon around her fingers and letting the breeze catch and carry it away.

They landed gently, Kyoshi's legs folding beneath her so that, when they landed, Toph was standing on her upper legs. Kyoshi kept her steady and pulled away, for once not caring (or not aware) of the others watching.

"You're sure you're not hurt?" she asked quietly.

Toph squeezed ever tighter, preventing her from escaping the embrace. "_Mhm." _Kyoshi's face turned towards hers slightly, and then she pulled back. "You're okay?"

Kyoshi huffed. But her eyes were softer than usual, and her voice quieter. There was still a hardened undertone to her voice, but it was lessened. "Fine. Now if you're done treating me like a damn kitten, get off and stay out of the way. How am I supposed to fight with you clinging to me?"

Toph smirked and took a step back, allowing the tall woman to rise. "We'll just have to fight together, won't we?"

"I hope you're not implying I can't take them by myself."

"Come on now. Would I really do such a thing?"

Kyoshi looked over to their enemies, who were confused and looking quite agitated. Taking a step towards them, she drew her fans. "Come on then. We've got some arse to kick!"

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

"What did you drag me all the way out here for?" Kyoshi found it difficult and a little bit painful to follow a girl whose head was scarcely at lower hip-level. She had to lean forward quite a bit and trot awkwardly after the blind Earthbender.

It was a dark night and she could only see ahead of her because of the ball of flame swirling atop her palm. The full moon was a marvellous silvery-white sphere drifting in the sky, and it was surrounded by a scattering of stars that sparkled brightly across the horizon. Clouds settled in front of a few, concealing them from sight. After another half-minute of awkward trotting after her apprentice, Toph slowed to a halt and tipped her head.

"We're here!"

Kyoshi looked up. Nothing but fields stretched out for miles in the direction they were facing. She had expected, at the urgency of Toph's tugging on her sleeves and refusal to leave her alone, it would have been something serious. But so far she couldn't see anything.

"You dragged away from my bed for this?" she started to growl. "There's nothing out here."

"Wrong!" Toph chirped happily. "Okay, put out that fireball, sit down and watch this."

Kyoshi let out an irate grunt and extinguished her only source of light. If this was some trick and she was going to be ambushed, hell nor high water would save Toph. Lowering herself onto the top of the slope, she gazed out across the fields, waiting for … whatever it was she was supposed to be watching out for.

Falling back into an Airbending stance, Toph gathered the wind about her arms and then released it across the moor.

For a second nothing happened, but then lights began to rise from the earth. Her dark emerald eyes skimmed from one tiny dancing bulb to another and she blinked slowly as they lifted up out of the grass. It was a beautiful sight so close up. In the darkness of the night, they looked like stars being born. She wanted to reach out and capture a handful of them in her hand.

They watched it for a while in complete silence.

At some point Toph had sat down on her lap, leaning forward eagerly. Kyoshi didn't understand why at first, because it wasn't like she could see them, was it? But she could. Toph could see the lights, a sprinkle of black specks across a gentle, swirling white ribbon. Better than that, she could see all around them. But she focused her sight towards the fireflies and leaned back against her mentor's chest, resting her hands on her stomach. Kyoshi sat in a half-sitting, half reclining position, using her arms as props with her shoulders hunched.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" prompted Toph with a content smile. "It's like snow, except it's … not snow."

"...Congratulations, Shortshit, that's the most sense you've made all day."

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Toph found herself filled with unbridled anger when a man approached and, giving Kyoshi a sly smile, attempted to seduce the Avatar. She had no idea why.

Kyoshi had stared at him blankly, as if she couldn't believe what she had just heard. It was the cheesiest pick up line possible. To put it simply, she was not impressed. At all. And she was nowhere near interested. This man obviously thought he had scored, and his friends were gawking at him across the bar. But Toph never gave her the chance to respond.

It was spreading through her veins, starting from the chest and working outwards. Like someone had set fire to a cobweb.

"Fuck off!" Toph roared, startling everyone as she lunged forward. Gathering a swirling whirlwind around her fist, she punched him in the gut and launched him across the outside tables, straight into the crowd she could hear snickering—who, of course, stopped and started yowling with alarm. They were all bowled over, or at least knocked into staggering straight into another desk.

Kyoshi stared, and stared, and stared. "Dear Toph. What – the – hell?"

Toph reached up and dragged her mentor away from them, absolutely fuming. As they passed by Suki, whose eyes could not have been wider, the giant shrugged.

She wasn't complaining.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Then it was Kyoshi's turn to protect Toph.

They had gone out to escape the (Fire Nation) Palace and His Royal Irritant, and had spread out to socialise with the others to find out, off-duty, how they were faring. Well, Kyoshi hadn't. Socialising wasn't something she was good at. She was content to sit by herself and observe her warriors as they did.

But Toph had decided to go and get another drink. Kyoshi hadn't realised it, but her narrowed, dark green eyes had fallen onto her apprentice and her shoulders had tensed.

A group of boys approached the fifteen year old, who took her attention off of the bartender for a few seconds—a few, crucial seconds—to inch away uncomfortably from the hand that landed on her shoulder. The boys were offering to pay for the drink.

Toph grabbed the offending limb and brushed it off her shoulder, and moved to pay off her debt to the owner. The 'ringleader' stopped her, and by this point Toph was openly glaring at him. She started talking to him; Kyoshi opened their bond and caught onto a few words, but her attention was mostly fixated on one of the others, who was attempting to pour something else into the smoothie.

With him warned off, Toph snatched her drink off of the counter and shoved them aside. Taking their loitering at the bar to mean they weren't going to follow her, she was about to raise the drink to her lips when it was confiscated by a very tall, and very noticeable woman.

Kyoshi locked eyes with the boys, and slowly crushed the glass in one hand.

And then she crushed them.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Only when Suki called out her name for the fifth time did Avatar Kyoshi realise she had lapsed into deep thought whilst gazing at her student. Blinking to awareness with a slight look of shock, her dark emerald eyes flicked from Toph to one of her warrior captains. Her head turned half way, her chin still resting gently on the back of her knuckles.

"What?"

Outside it was dark, serene and peaceful. One of the cloudless nights where the starlight burned brightly, where Kyoshi sometimes found herself at her most melancholic. Chilled breezes weaved their way around the trees, whirlwinds picking up fallen leaves, and the winds whistled through the rocks at the base of the castle.

Toph had fallen asleep almost an hour ago. The young teenager had slowly started to sink into the realm of sleep, lulled by the sound of calm talking. Her bun had come undone, and her sable hair tumbled over her shoulders as wild as the personality within the Earthbender.

Kyoshi caught herself staring again, and grunted to silence Suki before she could speak. "I'm taking her to bed," she announced, rising casually and gathering the child up into her arms.

For a moment she stood motionless, adjusting her ward so that she didn't fall. Toph's face was nuzzled into her teacher's neck, her breathing warm and even. As if sensing the sudden lack of stable ground beneath her, she let out a low moan of unease and wrapped her arms around Kyoshi's neck.

Everyone else in the room watched with amused and, in some cases, rather surprised looks. A dark eye twitched; Kyoshi let out an agitated growl.

"The fuck do I look like to you?"

Toph moaned inarticulately and settled. Kyoshi found herself the center of attention as she moved to take the resting child to a quieter spot. Roku's expression was filled with warmth, and he turned away to continue his conversation with Iroh. Aang shifted and continued watching, though the Earth-born Avatar's snappy comment was redirected when Kuruk's usual drawling voice rose up through the background noise.

"Awww, that's so sweet." He purred silkily. "You're so nice, Kyoshi. Can I have a hug too?"

Brow twitching violently in response to his teasing jibe, a vein in Kyoshi's forehead burst with a heart-stopping snap. She snarled. A hand reached for her sword. But before she could, Roku pushed her wrist away and gazed up at the towering woman.

"Put Toph to bed first, and then you can come back and kill him."

Kuruk blanched. "Hey, Roku, whose side are you on?"

Roku gave a non-committal shrug. "The side of reason, of course. And the side that wants to stay alive once Kyoshi comes back."

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Kyoshi was on the warpath the second Toph stumbled into the training hollow, shaking with barely restrained sadness.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Kuruk was never going to let them live it down when his singing acted as a lullaby and sent the two Earthbenders to sleep in front of the crackling fireplace in the common room.

Chances were, they weren't going to let him live, either.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Suki was very observant by nature. Far more than Kyoshi, who only had vision for battle. Some would say she was on par with Kuruk, whose eyes would see everything, from the ant to the mountain and beyond. So she couldn't help but notice how Kyoshi always seemed to relax when Toph entered the room, as though being unable to see her meant that the young woman was in danger.

She also noticed how they always seemed to argue, and never apologised to one another. They fought with words, they fought with fists, feet, fans, swords, earth, and sky—and fire, where Kyoshi was concerned. But before she could even blink, Toph was back by her side, smiling that gunmetal mouth, and Kyoshi was rolling her eyes with exasperation—but not shoving her away as she would have done with anyone else.

There were no apologies. Neither of them confessed to being wrong. And when the battling finally stopped, they left the room as they had entered it. Side by side.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

"You're jealous," Kuruk mused when Aang watched Kyoshi carry a sleeping Toph back to the rooms they were staying.

Aang's gaze turned to him once her retreating footsteps had faded into the silence he maintained.

Kuruk rested a hand on his shoulder and gave him a warm smile. "Nothing wrong with that. I'm jealous too."

Aang blinked up at him, not really believing that. Kyoshi insulted him at every opportunity, and even then, when it wasn't warranted.

Kuruk's smile grew until there was a flash of sharp teeth peeking from behind his lips. "One thing you need to learn about Kyoshi is that I can count the few people she has ever _truly_ hated on one hand … and the amount of hands that is in this room to count those she has ever loved."

Aang's eyes flicked to the doorway. He wasn't as perceptive as Suki, but they were the only two people in the room. Four hands. Four people.

"Who else?" he asked, looking back to Kuruk.

"Akar," said Kuruk. "And … well, Kyoshi's Lover."

"Who was Akar?"

Kuruk straightened up and stretched his legs. "Akar is to Kyoshi as Appa is to you, or Fang to Roku."

Kyoshi's Familiar? "I've never heard about Kyoshi's Familiar before. Or yours, matter of fact."

"Well, mine is a bit of a long story. Let's just say that I didn't get this coat from thin air. As for Akar," Kuruk grinned, "you already know her."

Aang doubted it. The name sounded like something he'd heard before, but he didn't recall ever meeting Kyoshi in the Spirit World. When he opened his mouth to ask for clarification, Kuruk was gone, talking to Roku animatedly, distracting him momentarily for Iroh to nudge a tile out of place and win the game of Pai Sho.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Kyoshi wrinkled her nose at the Airbender as though he had rolled around in something nasty. "What about her?"

"Well Kuruk mentioned it," Aang said, ignoring the annoyed roll of her shoulder at the Waterbender's name. "He said her name is Akar."

Kyoshi barely noticed when Toph, laughing, jumped onto her shoulder. "Yeah, her name is Akar. You should know that. You fucking tried to ride her once."

Now, Aang was even more confused.

He managed to convince his former life to let him visit 'Akar'. Rather, he followed her when the Kyoshi Warriors returned to their Island for a week of rest and rehabilitation with their loved ones. Kyoshi responded to his inquiries with non-committal grunts whenever he tried to ask her about it. She only relented when the Warriors asked as well.

Needless to say, when Kyoshi let out an ear-splitting whistle using her closed fan as a flute, they all nearly went to the Spirit World when the Unagi exploded from the water and none-too-gently ploughed her into the ground, nuzzling and growling like a kitten, soft and warm from sleep. Except it was five times larger than Fang, and three times larger than the serpent at Serpent's Pass, and Kyoshi, who was probably the biggest human in the world, was scarcely twice the size of it's eyeball.

"You wanted to see Akar," Kyoshi said casually, looking backwards at them over the ground, her hair and clothing ruffled. She looked completely impassive and, dare they think it, she even looked content with the scaly beast grinding her deeper into the crater she had punched with her whisker. But she did look breathless, and paused to cough when the tip of the whisker tickled her chin. "This is Akar."


End file.
